I by no means thought I’d write these phrases in my life, however Cody Rhodes, why can’t you be extra like Jean-Claude Van Damme?
At Thursday evening’s Sport Awards in Los Angeles, Paramount revealed what it’s formally calling a “sneak peek” of the 2026 Avenue Fighter (Oct. 16) movie. The teaser “went over huge” on the video-game awards present, an individual within the room tells The Hollywood Reporter. Nicely, it was not as well-received in the lounge of this specific Hollywood Reporter… reporter.
The 45-second clip begins effective — we see Ryu’s (Andrew Koji) clenching fist à la the Arthur meme, Rhodes’ fellow WWE Celebrity Roman Reigns (Joe Anoa’i) as Akuma having a shower or one thing, Zangief (Olivier Richters) pulling a tractor, Chun-Li (Callina Liang) standing round wanting like “Chun-Li” — after which we get to Balrog (Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson) and his silly online game haircut. (Put together your self now, as a result of dumb hair goes to be a giant theme on this story.)
Balrog’s hair, which form of appears to be like like an “M” from the entrance, within the video video games is silly. The boxer’s hair within the coming live-action film (and admittedly, the 32-year-old one) is an ideal facsimile of Balrog’s hair within the sport and is, thus, silly. It’s additionally not the worst hair within the teaser.
After snippets of Dhalsim (Vidyut Jammwal), E. Honda (Hirooki Goto) and Cammy (Mel Jarnson), there’s a shot of a bleached-blonde floating flat prime — sure, Guile (Rhodes) has entered the world.
We get just a few extra exact-replica-character-establishment pictures earlier than we see Guile in full — full-on Somersault Flash Kicking Vega (Orville Peck) by means of a wall. That’s once we get the complete scope of how absurd the colonel’s flattop ‘do is. I imply, it’s obtained to be six inches tall — possibly extra.
Amid some dimly-lit (however good!) quick-cut battle scenes (and an excellent backing observe), is Don Sauvage (Eric André) wanting goofy as hell. In a approach, all of it appears to be like goofy as hell. Nicely, the roundhouse kicks are fairly crisp.
For a non-animated movie, Avenue Fighter (2026) appears to be like fairly cartoonish, and that’s not due to the exaggerated bicycle kicks. The characters are precise character fashions — hair, garments and every little thing — to those within the video video games. At occasions, it appears to be like like unhealthy CGI, solely the film will not be CGI. I can droop my disbelief solely thus far: a feral boy raised within the Amazon grows as much as be inexperienced with orange hair? Certain. Guile’s barber agreeing to this bullshit? No approach.
Earlier than you inform me I’m lacking the purpose, let me guarantee you that I’m not. I really like Avenue Fighter. I grew up on Avenue Fighter 2, Mortal Kombat and NBA Jam in a magical constructing referred to as an arcade. In 1991, when Avenue Fighter II: The World Warrior debuted, total video games needed to be packed into and introduced in 16 bits; Avenue Fighter 6, the present sport within the collection, is 64 bits (and it’s nice). When the pixels had been poor and the screens had been worse, these over-the-top cartoony bodily traits had been as soon as wanted to distinguish character fashions. As we speak, every little thing is HD, if not 4K.
Within the early Nineteen Nineties, the Avenue Fighter craze led to a rushed-together characteristic movie. Principally, Common booked a giant identify for good man Col. Guile (Van Damme) and for unhealthy man M. Bison (Raul Julia, in what could be his remaining movie function), and made a shitty film fully reliant on new IP and a top-loaded name sheet. It sucked. Like, it actually, actually sucked — however the trailer is healthier.
The one mistake the OG live-action Avenue Fighter film didn’t make was making its people appear to be no human you’d ever see in the actual world. Like, in ‘94, Guile simply had spikey hair — so did I. Relatable.
The Mortal Kombat films do a greater job adapting a straight tournament-based preventing sport to movie. A darker tone and established backstory presenting many various realms helps promote the world(s) we see. Baraka is an alien; it’s effective. The opposite factor Mortal Kombat has going for it’s that the video games had been traditionally animated by digitizing precise actors. (As we speak it’s motion-captured semi-realistic 3D.) The (actual) folks we noticed on the massive display regarded just like the (actual) folks we noticed on the tube-TV-backed arcade cupboards. There was no must re-imagine a drawing into the flesh.
To be clear, I’m not declaring Avenue Fighter (2026) a dud — it’s approach too quickly for one thing like that, the pattern measurement is way too small — and I’m nonetheless rooting for it to rule. I simply hope that by the point the complete trailer comes out, the character builds are a bit extra palatable for this Participant One.
Paramount’s been right here earlier than. Keep in mind in 2019, earlier than COVID, when the world’s greatest drawback was Sonic the Hedgehog having human tooth within the first trailer for that ‘90s online game adaptation? The movie’s director Jeff Fowler heard the suggestions, carried out a mass-extraction, and a significant film franchise was born. Let’s do this once more; may we possibly buzz Guile’s flattop in publish?